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• 1. 3awne ma7et | April 12th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

  are you defending israel??kidnaping 2 soldiers is a terrorist act but destroying lebanon and killing more than 1000 peapole isn’t terorist if what hezbolah did is terorisme .What do you call what israel and usa did and are doing.did you forget july war if you did i did not and thank you!

• 2. ali | April 12th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

  So, in the end, you have nothing new to offer in this argument. You simply regurgitate the old, tired mantra of Israeli and US accusations against HA.

  FYI, with the exception of the one or two poodle countries towing the US line, no one else in the world buys these arguments.

  Except for the soldiers’ “kidnapping,” HA, the organization, has denied all the other accusations against it. In the early 80’s many groups operated in Lebanon, each with its own agenda and methods. HA, as an organization, was not even around when the Marine Barracks and the Embassy bombings took place.

  As for the Israeli embassy and Jewish center, HA has vehemently denied any involvement. You are simply buying Israel’s argument without any proof, except Israel’s own credible word for it.

  But let’s take the soldiers’ kidnapping as an example of “terrorism.” Lebanon and Israel have been in a state of war for decades. Not only did Israel steal Palestine from the Palestinians, it even illegally annexed many Lebanese towns whose Lebanese owners are still alive today, with deeds to their land and property. Much of the Palestinian and Lebanese populations that fled the fighting did so out of fear of the terrorizing methods of the Haganah and Irgun gangs, headed by no other than two later Israeli presidents, Begin and Shamir, who were wanted terrorists by the British in Palestine with a reward for their capture.

  For all the crimes Israel has repeatedly visited upon Lebanon, for a series of events they, the usurping European Jews, unleashed, we will need a hundred international tribunals to try them. Wholesale invasions, killings, kidnappings, torture, intimidations; we can fill chronicles that will fuel enough anger and a thirst for revenge forever. Even as the kidnappings took place, Israel was still holding Lebanese citizens in prison and occupying Lebanese land. The previous year alone, it killed both a Lebanese shepherd and a fisherman in cold blood, and infiltrated Lebanese land and sky thousand of times according the UN, again without a word of condemnation from anyone.

  So, you can at least, within this historical and political context, or at least for the sake of fairness, see the “kidnapping” as, possibly, a legitimate tactic by the Lebanese to bring redress to their grief, no?

  If the “kidnapping “ is an instance of terrorism, what do you call the entire occupation of Palestine, or if you’re not so inclined, at least the West Bank and Gaza, and the daily killings and humiliations the Jews visit upon the Palestinians?

  What about the invasion of a sovereign country, Iraq, by the terrorism-label-throwing US? What did the Iraqis, including the despicable Saddam Hussein, do to the Americans to justify the plundering of their nation? So far, more than 650,000 Iraqis have died; do their lives count?

  The CIA admitted that they planted a bomb in 1985 to kill Sayyed Fadlallah (instead massacring more than 80 women and children), and planted mines in the Nicaraguan harbor to undermine the freely-elected government of the Sandinistas. No terrorism here? You want more examples to fit a more legitimate definition of terrorism?

  What is more telling to me, in this “kidnapping” episode and the way you view it, is the complete disconnectedness you, as a Lebanese, must feel with the rest of your countrymen. You freely throw the label of terrorism at them, while literally white-washing the crimes of the Israelis who started this whole mess in the first place, and continue to perpetrate crimes with impunity.

  I wonder where your sympathies truly lie. I don’t have to be from Managua to know who infringed on whom in the CIA mining the harbor in Nicaragua, or be from Santiago to know who violated whose rights when the US mounted a coup against the, again, democratically-elected president Allende in Chile, plunging the country in a dark and tumultuous period for decades under the murderous and dictatorial vice grip of Pinochet. The Nicaraguans never came to US shores and played terrorist. Neither did the Chileans.In the same vein, you don’t even have to be Lebanese to know who the real victim of the violence between Lebanon and Israel is. The Lebanese never went into Brooklyn and claimed divine property rights there, massacred and kicked Brooklyners out to Canada, and then invaded Canada . But the fact that you are Lebanese, and representative of a sizable Lebanese community, and supposedly privy to the history and development of these events, makes your own judgment all the more wanting.

• 3. Patrick M | April 12th, 2007 at 7:35 pm

  don’t forget the 1996 khobar towers bombing in dhahran, saudi arabia.

• 4. Mohammad | April 12th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

  Guys,

  Somebody is comparing what HA is doing to what Israel or CIA is doing!!! For God sake, we all know that Israel is our enemy. We all know that Israel is the #1 terrorist country in the world. They are killers, blood suckers…..count as much as you can, but if Israel or CIA is doing this, it doesn’t mean that HA actions are not similar, at least on the Lebanese internal side.
  When Israel kills 1000 persons last summer, it is a crime but this crime is coming from our #1 enemy but for HA (a Lebanese party) to destroy the country due to a decision taken in TEHRAN then this a terrorist action.

  Can anybody give the name of an Independent country with full sovereign that has a party full of weapons who can wage war according to 3 party agenda??? Where? How????
  Who gave HA the right to kidnap those 2 soldiers???
  Is HA the only party in Lebanon to decide?
  What if I go tomorrow and kidnap 2 SYRIANS because Syrian army kidnapped my brother 16 years ago? Am I the one to decide how to get him back? Do you give Syria the right to react and kill 1000 persons because I kidnapped 2 Syrians?

  In which country you find a party that imports CLEAN MONEY in Bags from another country and distribute this CLEAN MONEY to people who are requested 2 months later to rebel and attach other Lebanese citizens with different sects?

  Those who do the below are terrorists:
  1- Own illegal weapons
  2- Took decisions related to (war-peace) that should be the Government sole decision
  3- Prevent the Government organizations from managing lands/ public companies… inside the international borders.
  4- Ignoring country internal rules
  5- Sign contracts with another country (even verbal contracts) without Gov permission
  6- OWN VITO on everything that contradicts with their personal benefits in an illegal way (objection inside parliament or inside Gov through representatives is part of the democratic game and so it is legal).
  7- Invite enemies to destroy our land
  8- Prefer Sect vs. country
  7- Build country inside country

  Please lets don’t waste time just searching if this word is applicable to HA or not. The problem is not in words or definition, the problem is in their actions that are driving Lebanon to HELL.

• 5. Get over it | April 13th, 2007 at 2:07 am

  Dear Ali :

  long comment….that took you time!!
  Good job and FYI aloush REPUBLICANS are going to lose the 08 elections in AMERICA , so get ready to see THE LEBANESE CLOWNS falling flat on their necks (as they did b4) when the new DEMOCRATIC us government decide to pull out of iraq and start their new newer midd-east!
  Wait and see…Have the 3SSAYE ready so we can send some ppl back to jail (where they belong)!! Till that time take care and thank you again for the clarification.

• 6. SERGIO | April 13th, 2007 at 3:29 am

  For 3awne ma7et, go and check your spelling before you write a comment “ya Oumme, ya jehel” (peapole, terorisme). Kharjak tkoun 3awne!

• 7. WHAT | April 13th, 2007 at 5:04 am

  ali,

  answer this: Why did Hizballah kidnap 2 IDF (they crossed the border by the way) this July?

  If you can answer this, you’ll know why Hizballah is a terrorist organization.

  P.S. All YOU do is regurgitate the old tired mantra of Syria and Iran. Your “explanations” are usually nothing but cop outs that don’t have any factual weight. You are nothing but a hypocrite.

• 8. ouwetje | April 13th, 2007 at 9:23 am

  eh nishkor alla atal kel hol yahood…inshalla ile bi israel kameen

• 9. Samra | April 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

  are u serious? u think ur stating Facts?? Hezballah is a terrorist group for defending their land? and Israel thats forcing its existence by killing and destroying is not act of terror??? Israel is a terrorist state backed by the americans.

• 10. Hussein | April 13th, 2007 at 5:03 pm

  Do u call the killing of Israeli pple is a terrorism?!!

• 11. Ziad | April 13th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

  Please do. I would like to present the facts your showed with some more details and evidence.

• 12. Ziad | April 13th, 2007 at 5:27 pm

  dear ” 3awne ma7et “, this article concerns Hezballah terror activities, with no mention of all the atrocities of the rest of the world, I think. It doesn’t mean that Israel, US, North Korea, etc.. are Holy

• 13. N10452 | April 13th, 2007 at 9:04 pm

  Ali,
  You are failing to understand one thing, that i dont give a damn what Israel is doing in Palestine, it is not my cause and i dont wanna hear about it ..
  I want to live in peace in LEBANON and i want peace with any country that offers it ..
  Israel will not attack us if we didnt have Hezbollah .. and if we didnt have palestinians before ..

  Israel has been holding 1 % of the Lebanese lands while Syria was invading the 99% left, yet we chose to fight Israel and thank Syria ??

  Hezbollah collaborated with an ennemy against another .. and no he did not free the South, he invaded it a 2nd time ..

  Hezbollah has been accused by many countries of terrorist acts, this is a Lebanese party and thats what matters to me, i am not defending here the CIA or Mossad … let him stick to Lebanon and believe in its sovereignty and give its weapons to the legitimate army and let us live in peace ..

  HA has become the 1st reason for the youth immigration since the July war .. 50% of Christians are thinking of leaving and almost 200 000 already left !!!!

  Just explain to me how are his plans helping us ?? because from what i am seeing, this is his plan, empty Lebanon from its educated youth and control the masses li bikhalfo fida el sayyid 7assin !!

• 14. Delta | April 13th, 2007 at 11:49 pm

  Get over it

  bravo great job hayda il ken na2sak ba3ed seriously ya haram chu btinso awem nsit min chel il souriyeh min hon ? REPUBLICANS brother Republicans….

  ma rah 3ali2 la 2anno btinsa awem hadertak salem il massih ya chabeb

• 15. lebanon | April 13th, 2007 at 11:59 pm

  the “exodus” of the palestinians is caused by israel and they wouldn’t have come to lebanon were they not forced to leave their homeland..
  HA launched its resistance after israelis attacked lebanon and reached to Beirut..so thanks to israel there wouldn’t have palestinian refugees and camps and guerilla men,plus there wouldn’t be HA’s resistance…
  as to syrians it wasn’t HA who invited them to lebanon ..they came at some request of the deceased president franjiyyé and they stayed because of the lebanese “hospitality”..common interests between the corrupts..sharing profits..lebanese seeking ranks and syrians offering them what they wanted for a known cost..3njar the mecca of many pilgrims who missed the real way to a free independent lebanon and followed the way to some rank or chair..
  during these years the lebanese had enough failed financial plans ..more taxes and less services..more corruption and less employnent..more lies and less truths..but they kept on paying taxes and hoping to get better chances ..they never got what they wanted and immigration never stopped..
  why are the christians always portrayed as the weak party in lebanon ,the victims and the jesus crucified for the sins of the muslims,the shi3a particularly and more specifically HA..they had their role in bringing destruction unto lebanon and the immigrants of all sects are paying for what all zo3ama had done..
  all over histories ,there have been scapegoats..and today HA is chosen as a scapegoat..it will be blamed for the past,the present and the future..all others are innocent of bringing lebanon to its current state ..
  the question is :if we are done with HA will we get our immigrants back?will there be a better future ? will we live in peace?will we enjoy independence?no more interferences camouflaged as “support to get freedom and democracy”?
  will thr be social justice?governmental services reaching to the furthest villages?…

• 16. Delta | April 14th, 2007 at 12:03 am

  Dear ali , dear get over it

  fortuntly for all the worlod its not N10452 , or delta or shadow or the lf or any one saying that HA is a terrorist it the UN (nation units) united nations that decide who is a terrorist and who is not so bon appetit mes chers (ali and get over it) HA is a terrorist organization listed by the UN .

  ur answer gonna be : oh bass bush tells the united nation what to say…………… bush was not here when u guys where trying to liberate palestine and launching rockets on isrealis civilian that would not even be supportive of the isreali goverment or nor zioninst . good luck by proving ur not a terrorist organisation .

  fi chi richech ma3koun bi rokhsa ?

  salem il massih ya chabeb

• 17. Delta | April 14th, 2007 at 12:18 am

  and this is the proof please go ahead chek it :Human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused Hezbollah of committing war crimes against Israeli civilians.

  http://www.amnesty.org/airesults/search?q=hizbollah&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&lr=lang_en&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&client=eng&proxystylesheet=eng&site=default_collection

• 18. Delta | April 14th, 2007 at 12:21 am

  and ali dont you ever think that the zionist are better than u no u are both terrorsit u deserve each others

• 19. george saab | April 14th, 2007 at 3:15 am

  Djuan or get over it:
  Ana deyman bi2ra hayda l blog w kell mara inta bitkoun 3m bithejim ouwet w massi7iyeh/isslem kamen…

  sara7a ana byi3jboune your EXAMPLES on doing things and views , bass lesh ma bti7ke 3n aoun ? leh bass bti7ke 3n ouwet ? Leh deyman you put us down , ma3 inak mich stupid 3indak afkar hilwe ktir bass michkiltak inak ktir mit3ssib lal MOUJRIM GMA TABA3K , btw aoun akbar mijrim , ana baye met bi7areb aoun , bass bta3reff kif met? aoun’s army tarakou yinzoff ma khalo iss3f youssalo , w since that day my mom is under stress ! Djuan plz answer my questions for me , w sara7a iza fik ta3tine example bikoun a7ssan : LESH AOUN YATAMNE? LESH AOUN JABAR IME TRABINE LA7ALA LAMAN ANA KINET 1 YR OLD? LESH DAMAR LEBNEN W HARAB? HOW CAN I HELP MY MOM TO GET BACK TO THE NORMAL LIFE?
  english plz , w bala mssabet w be you !

• 20. george saab | April 14th, 2007 at 3:16 am

  ALSO, djuan :

  lesh HA saro hala2 mneh , w inta kell 3omrak tssibon? plz reply clearly w bala masabet!

• 21. Mohammad | April 14th, 2007 at 11:31 am

  nice article to be read http://www.alshiraa.com/alshiraa/details.asp?iss=1284&cat=1&art=1&id=11272

• 22. Get over it | April 14th, 2007 at 7:58 pm

  Dear george saab :
  I will be so glad to answer your questions , but are you sure that im the one to be asked? George , i did not kill you father ect….still im going to answer all of your questions by 2moro.. im busy 2day ! unless you post your email !

  10452 am i a crminal now? I hope this is the last time you squeeze me in the corner like that ,im not here to represent anyone , so plz keep that in your mind! THIS IS SOME BULLSHIIT!

• 23. N10452 | April 15th, 2007 at 12:08 am

  Get over it,
  I think you are smart enough to realize what you wrote .. such false accusations are not accepted here .. speciallly not against Dr.Geagea ..

  You know very well he was innocented from the Church bombing and you know it is a very sensitive issue .. so please mention it wisely.

• 24. FRANKLIN LAMB | April 15th, 2007 at 7:09 am

  And Who Isn’t But Should Be?
  Why is Hezbollah on the Terrorism List?
  By FRANKLIN LAMB

  It was a sign of the times last week (March 27) when House Armed Services Committee Staff Director Erin Conaton declared in a memo to committee staffers that the powerful committee was scrapping the Bush Administration shop worn phrase, Global War of Terrorism. Conaton’s boss, Rep. Ike Skelton,( D-Mo) the new Chairman of the Committee commented that “the overused label had become an embarrassment and had lost its meaning”.

  Recent research in Lebanon has turned up information previously unavailable which sheds light of the misapplication of the Terrorism label by the Bush administration.

  The” T word” is often misapplied as former National Security Advisor Brzezinski reminds us as he tours the country promoting his new book, Second Chance and focusing on the “catastrophic leadership” crisis caused by the Bush administration’s foreign policy.

  Another area that would benefit from discarding the “terrorist label” is the Bush administration’s ongoing campaign against Hezbollah. There is considerable doubt among international lawyers whether Hezbollah should ever have been classified as a terrorist organization.

  At the urging of U.S. and Israel, Canada classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, which limits the group’s ability to raise funds and travel internationally. . A Canadian peace coalition called Tadamon Montreal is working to remove Hezbollah from the Terrorism list in Canada.

  Australia and the UK distinguish between Hezbollah’s security and political wings, and other countries like China, Russia, and member states of the European Union and the United Nations have refused US/Israel demands to label Hezbollah a terrorist organization at all.

  The process for putting an organization on the “Terrorism list” is as follows: The Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in the U.S. State Department (S/CT) monitors the activities of groups active around the world considered potentially terrorist to identify potential targets for designation. When reviewing potential targets, S/CT looks not only at the actual terrorist attacks that a group has carried out, but also at “whether the group may be inclined toward future acts of terrorism or retains the capability to carry out such acts”.

  As of April 2007, a plurality (39%) of the organizations on the US Terrorism list represent Muslim groups recommended for inclusion by, among others, AIPAC and their friends in Congress. According to former AIPAC Director of Congressional Relations, Steve Rosen, soon to start his trial for passing classified information to Israel, “AIPAC owns the ‘T’ list!”

  The US State Department definition of terror is a broad one: “the deliberate and systematic murder, maiming and menacing of the innocent to inspire fear for political ends

  Suspected terrorist groups are thereby defined as such by the means they use to pursue their objectives. To describe an organization as terrorist is not a comment on its political goal or ends, which may be laudable ones such as national liberation or resistance to occupation.

  The common saying that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ is rejected by this student of the subject because it is simplistic and even nonsensical. To whit, a terrorist can also be a freedom fighter struggling for justice and a freedom fighter can fight for freedom by using terrorist means.

  Placed on the “T” list in 1999, Hezbollah was taken off the list a couple of years later following Hezbollah’s strong condemnation of the 9/11 attack on America. Hezbollah was returned to the list when Dick Cheney opined that a “presumed Hezbollah operative” probably met with an Al Qaeda representative in South America in 2001. Similar to Cheney’s Saadam Hussein-Al Qaeda ‘contacts’ claim.

  Lebanese officials including Lebanese President Emil Lahoud contemptuously dismissed reports of such a meeting as Israeli-sponsored propaganda. According to Lahoud: “The media campaign, which is conducted by Israeli circles, seeks to exploit the September 11 attacks to slander the Lebanese resistance by stigmatizing it with the image of terrorism”. Lebanon continues to reject US/Israeli demands that they freeze Hezbollah’s back accounts and force it stop providing social services.

  A study undertaken at the American University of Beirut in January- February 2007, benefiting from research and surveys from a variety of international and Israeli human rights organizations, tabulated no fewer than 6,672 acts of Israeli state terrorism directed against Lebanon and Palestine between the years 1967-2007. Not only is Israel absent from the US State Department Terrorism list, Israel appears to determines who is on it.

  The case against Hezbollah presented in a draft by AIPAC for the State Department is virtually identical to the one finally issued by the State Department. It claims that Hezbollah bombed Americans at the US Embassy, the Marine barracks in 1983 and held a number of Americans hostages during the 1980’s. Or as Hezbollah’s rap sheet currently appears on US and Israeli government computers:

  “Hezbollah (as of April 3, 2007): Suicide bombings, hijacked 1985 TWA Flight 847; rocket attacks against Israel in 2006.”

  (The latter item re the “rocket attacks against Israel in 2006″, is examined in the just released volume, The Price We Pay: A Quarter Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons against Lebanon.)

  Hezbollah is accused by Israel and the Bush administration of a type of Islamist Terrorism similar to Al Qaeda but used in the context of National Liberation, just like Hamas. Both of which have fought Israel in the Lebanese and Palestinian contexts, respectively.

  However, unlike al Qaeda, their enemy, Hezbollah and Hamas are complex social and political movements. They use different types of force, including guerrilla tactics which are legitimate under international law. They are also different from al Qaeda in that their alleged terrorist activity aims to liberate Palestine and Lebanon, as opposed to being part of a ‘global struggle’ against the United States with undefined objectives.

  Was Hezbollah involved in the attacks against Americans a quarter century ago? Hezbollah has consistently denied these charges ever since it published its “open letter” announcing its foundation in 1985, years after the first attacks.

  The results of an investigation conducted entirely in Lebanon including interviews with some who claim to have been personally involved with the “rap sheet” events do not credit Bush administration claims.

  What the record to date shows, pending the Bush administration release of claimed evidence to the contrary, is the following:

  1) When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and quickly routed much of the PLO resistance, more than 30 local resistance groups formed. Some were no doubt inspired by the success of the Iranian Revolution three years earlier and took advantage of available political and physical training. Arms were available from the soon to depart PLO, and other sources, sometimes as gifts and sometimes for cash.

  For example, in late August 1982, as Fateh was preparing to depart Beirut for Greece and goodbyes were being said, two American researchers in Beirut were given (’for safe keeping’) 250 brand new Chinese made Ak-47’s wrapped in thick grease and heavy plastic. Not knowing exactly what to do with the gifts in the ‘wild west’ atmosphere of the time, the Americans, doing what came naturally, hastily buried them at night. The weapons were never found by the advancing Israelis but were discovered 15 years later when the Commodore Hotel in Hamra was enlarged and workers dug up that vacant lot to its south! Who has them now is anybody’s guess!

  The goal of these new groups in the 1980’s was to drive Israel and its foreign sponsors from Lebanon. The local and regional political situation of the early 1980’s was very tolerant of militant modes of actions and many groups adapted and acted because no single force, power or obstacle stood in their way.

  ‘Operations’ were sometimes carried out by part of a group without the knowledge, participation or liability or the particular organizations command.

  Teams of foreign assassins were active those days including one traced to Israel which tried to assassinate one of America’s most competent Ambassadors to Lebanon, John Guenther Dean on August 27, 1980. The weapons used in the failed attempt were traced to a shipment made from the US to Israel. Dean’s crime was getting too chummy with Yassir Arafat and his deputy Abu Jihad, who were helping Dean to get the American Embassy hostages released from Iran.

  Another “operation” during this period was the CIA funded attempt of March 8, 1985 to assassinate Sheik Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. The car bomb killed eighty, mostly women and children and wounded 256. As Bob Woodward points out in his book, Veil, the CIA’s William Casey mistakenly thought Fadlallah was the spiritual leader of Hezbollah. To this day Fadlallah is quite independent of Hezbollah although he is probably Lebanon’s most revered cleric due in no small measure to his scholarship, his three decades of social service work as well as his passionate defense of human rights.

  2) An exhaustive review, by American researchers, of the nearly 80 Western kidnapping cases, organized by a staggering variety of groups in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 concluded that more than 100 Western detainees were taken, released, killed or exchanged. As for the Lebanese themselves, thousands were kidnapped; many by Israel and their allies and hundreds are still unaccounted for.

  According to some who claim to have participated in one way or another, in some of these kidnappings, active groups sometimes declared responsibility and sometimes were silent. Among the groups admitting their actions at various times were: The Organization of Socialist Revolutionary Work, the Armed Revolutionary Factions in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad, the Organization of the Oppressed in the World, the Revolutionary Justice Organization, Holy Warriors for Freedom, the Khaibar Brigade, the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, the Blessed Resistance, the Islamic Liberation Organization, the Organization of the Mujhahideen for Freedom, the Revolutionary Cells, The Organization of the Islamic Dawn, The Organization of Militant Revolutionary Cells.

  These were some of the ‘main stream’ groups, there were others, some for whom kidnapping was a cottage industry. Some functioned much like the current US and the UK hired mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan. In some cases contracts were drawn up with individuals willing to “hire out” for certain specific abduction projects. Given the available labor pool there was sometimes intense competition for a contract. For some groups, westerners were snatched for no other reason than the ransom money was good. Often those involved would use the ransom money to start a legitimate business, pay for family needs such as medical care or their children’s tuition fees. Sometimes Western companies paid for the release of their employees and in other cases governments would pay.

  The largest payment for hostages during this period was the Arms for Hostages deal worked out by the Reagan administration when it provided missiles and spare parts to Iran to use against Saadam Hussein’s army after the same administration had supplied the Iraqi regime with chemical weapons to use against Iraqi Kurd, Shiites and Iranians.

  Lebanese Islamist groups, and others, who in the 1980’s were resisting Israel’s attacks did not feel that their acts were nearly as reprehensible as the US responsibility for what Israel was doing to their people and country.

  For example, once it became clear to them that the US Marines had abandoned their initially claimed neutrality as ‘peace keepers’ and instead began the shelling of Lebanon with 2,700-lb shells from the USS New Jersey most of these groups felt it their duty to repulse the US attacks.

  Interviews with some of these now middle aged resistance fighters in Lebanon who were active in this period make plain that these groups, felt that their military actions against the foreign forces constituted legitimate self defense, protecting Lebanon’s population from attacks by foreign forces.

  While the military legitimacy of fighting the American and French forces was clear to the Lebanese during the early 1980’s what about bombing the American Embassy? International law has protected Embassies since the 1815 Congress of Vienna extend protection to foreign plenipotentiaries.

  Safe passage for diplomats is not always honored and as recently as February 2007 the United States government has been accused by Iraq and Iran of unlawfully kidnapping Iranian diplomats

  The evidence from the 1980’s suggests that Hezbollah stayed out of the kidnapping game and concentrated on building its organization which they formally announced in an ‘open letter’ on Feb. 14, 1985.

  Would the founders of Hezbollah have heard of something on the street, village or family level of who may have been responsible for some of the high profile western kidnapping cases? One assumes so. Did neighborhood gossip attach an obligation to get involved on behalf of their viewed oppressors, including the US, and rescue their hostages? In order to avoid some future ‘terrorism’ list?

  The evidence suggests that Hezbollah is on a “political list” called the “terrorism list” because Israel wants it there not because there is proof that it engaged in terrorism against Americans 25 years ago.

  Using the scare tactic of ‘kidnapping Americans’ and ‘terrorism’ without proof, adds to the international ridicule of Bush’s policies.

  In the nearly empty Lebanese Parliament building these days the gossip is that the Bush administration wants to bargain with Hezbollah to remove it from the ‘T’ list if Hezbollah gives up its objective of liberating Palestine and cancels its opposition to the Bush/Olmert backed Siniora government

  Given this kind of Bush administration offer, many view Hezbollah’s spot on the ‘T list’ as a badge of honor . Yet, respect for international law would suggest that the Bush Administration ought to show their ‘evidence’ or remove Hezbollah from the list.

  When pressed in early April, 2007 by a former House Judiciary Committee staffer, one lawyer in the State Department Office of the General Counsel commented, “Its not that Hezbollah is terrorist per say, actually we know they are pretty clean-they are ok- but you must realize that they do associate with shady characters to their East, if you know what I mean.”

  Hezbollah’s view of the April 17, 1983 Embassy bombing is different from some militia operating during this period. Hezbollah has consistently opposed attacks on foreign civilians. It was one of the first to condemn the 9/11 operation as well as the 1997 attack at the Temple of Hatshepsut at Luxor, Egypt which killed 58 civilians as “bloody and terrible, calling them crimes against Islam. Hezbollah also condemned the Cairo attacks on the Greek tourists, and the Algerian killing of 7 trappist monks in Algerian by claimed Islamists.

  Despite Hezbollah’s view, which is based on the Koran’s prohibitions against harming innocent civilians, was the 1983 US Embassy attack terrorism against an internationally protected structure or had the Embassy become a legitimate military target? In the assertion of one individual, a former member of Islamic Jihad, interviewed by American researchers during the spring of 2007 his group had nothing to do with Hezbollah during the Embassy operation or at any other time. He claims his associates knew in advance (soviet intelligence passed to Lebanon via Syria) that the eight CIA operatives assigned to Lebanon were holding meetings in the Embassy and using its diplomatic protection for cover for plotting assassinations and attacks on Lebanon. The entire CIA contingent was indeed meeting on the 6th floor of the Embassy at the time of the attack. The same source claims that the Embassy was also being used for feeding targeting information to the USS New Jersey, visible offshore from the upper floors of the Chancery.

  The view that the American Embassy was a legitimate target on April 17, 1983 cannot be summarily dismissed without careful review because principles of International law tend to support it. Once an Embassy’s is used for aggressive military purposes its protection collapses and it becomes what Donald Rumsfeld calls a “legitimate target of opportunity”.

  Where is the proof that has been demanded for more than two decades? Is the only reason Hezbollah is on the ‘terrorism list’ is because Israel wants it there and a desire by some in the Bush administration to settle old scores without proof of who was responsible?

  Organizations such as Islamic Jihad, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth and the Revolutionary Justice Organization are considered by the Bush administration and Israel to be synonymous with Hezbollah. That grouping appears to be a clumsy and inaccurate conclusion designed to support political objectives. No proof has ever been offered to establish that these groups were part of Hezbollah during this period rather than adversaries or competitors.

  As one Hezbollah supporter commented:

  “In America as you built a resistance to the British invaders and occupiers were all the groups neatly organized? Were some ‘terrorists’? Did the ones who did operations such as the Boston Tea Party’ give their names and address to the occupiers? Or did some hide their identity and even dress like natives? Did George Washington and his staff know everything that was going on or did some groups just form and decided it was better to work on their own liberation project? That is what it was like here in Lebanon during this period. We should leave that period and concentrate on working together to solve today’s problems in Lebanon and the Middle East. All parties talking and meeting”

  In denying Hezbollah involvement in operations targeting American civilians, their leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah has stated:

  “The truth of the matter is that there was something other than Hezbollah, called the Islamic Jihad, who kidnapped the hostages. There exist videocassettes, communiqués that bear the signature of the Islamic Jihad. It is independent form the party. It is absolutely incorrect that the Islamic Jihad is a cover name for Hezbollah.

  Hezbollah remains on the US and Israel ‘terrorism’ list for purely political reasons and to punish the organization for its resistance to Israeli aggressions against Lebanon and Bush administration plans for the region.”

  It is time for the Bush administration to present its case and prove what terrorism Hezbollah has actually used against the American people in the 1980’s in light of US government admissions that since 1999 there is no evidence that Hezbollah has engaged in ‘Terrorism’.

  It’s time for the poker players to reveal their cards, or as they say down in Crawford.. ‘ y’all show ‘em er fold ‘em!

  Franklin Lamb has been in Lebanon researching a book for the past nine months. Hezbollah: a brief Guide for Beginners in expected in early summer, 2007. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com
  http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb04062007.html

• 25. Get over it | April 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am

  10452;

  Dont feel bad for him, KAHLIYA BIL ALEB BTIJRA7 W LA TOTLA3 3AL LSSEN W TOFDAH! Ya3ne badak tit7amal aw trok al balad mitlak mitel ghayrak!

  When sar massi7e /massi7e meeting? Talama samir vs michelle ma ra7 yimche al 7al ! bass bta3rif al 7a2 3la min? BATRAK is responsible , batrak ma ilo kilme ..very sad :(….

• 26. N10452 | April 15th, 2007 at 10:08 am

  Get over it,
  hayyeha bi albak jere7 mich bi 2albe .. inta baddak tit3allam te7ke el mazbout wel sara7a wou ma 7ada ra7 yojborne 2etrouk el balad ..

• 27. WHAT | April 15th, 2007 at 11:36 am

  A supporter of Hezbollah will never admit its a terrorist organization. Very similar to an alcoholic who does not admit he has a problem.

• 28. WHAT | April 15th, 2007 at 11:55 am

  That article by Frank Lamb is completely biased and bullshit. It only references ONE side of perspectives about Hizballah.

  He claims to have to asked or interviewed Hizballah supporters, former “freedom” fighters and references analysts regarding this issue. Why does he not mention the Lebanese point of view about Hizballah…maybe because that would defeat the purpose of his article.

  I dont if US, Canada, China or whoever thinks that Hizballah are terrorists or not. I know enough about them to realize that they are because of what they have done to Lebanon.This has only been in Lebanon for 9 months and thinks he knows enough to write about it? Gimme a fuckin break!!!!

  P.S. That group mentioned in Canada trying to get Hizballah off the terrorism list is supported solely by PALESTINIAN IMMIGRANTS, Coincidence???

• 29. proud 2 b lf w bass | April 15th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

  i hope one day a nuclear bomb explodes in the usa irael syria iran…..and they leave us alone to take our descesions……..israel is a terrorist country such as HA iran usa and syria………fuck them all

  lebanon w bass……we dont need to discuss their shit…think of lebanon ….. leave their problems to them…….think of our problems and how to solve them …. dont obey other countries obey the cedar of lebanon……
  LEBANON must no die……

• 30. Mohammad | April 15th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

  FRANKLIN LAMB,

  Please next time make your article shorter because we have business to do and we are not living in tents doing nothing in order to read your NEWSPAPER!

  Bottom line, I don’t care about all countries’ classifications as long as Hizballa is convincing us (Lebanese) day after day that Terrorism moves in HA nerves.

  Also, if you want another point of view, from HA alley, here is GMA point of view. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWtGNmHy7nk&mode=related&search=

• 31. paul | April 15th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

  do we have today a dictation compotition???

• 32. mounir | April 15th, 2007 at 5:13 pm

  HA is a terrorist organization. what a joke, i debt that the article author is from the moon and not living on the earth.

• 33. N10452 | April 15th, 2007 at 9:22 pm

  Mounir,
  And we should believe because u think so ?

• 34. paul | April 15th, 2007 at 9:45 pm

  is hizb allah also on the moon?!!!wow

• 35. Tarek | April 16th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

  Well, There is one thing I know, Hizbullah is not a terrorist party, Hizbullah is actually the Devil’s Party. When hizbullah kidnapped the two soldiers the last summer, it was not an act of terrorism. The aim of the kidnap was to initialize a war to destroy Lebanon and kill his citizens. This is an act of a “Devil”. With respect to the list of terrorism activities, there are two actions which are not terrorist activities: The Marine Bombing, it should be out of the list. The Soldiers Kidnapping, it also should be out of the list.

  For the rest, 100% Terror:

  Killing 95 jews: I can’t see the fight of freedom?

  Kidnapping a plane: Well, I wish I was on one to kick their ass.

  Bombing Israeli Embassy: Although israel is my enemy, I found it very unethical, even in war, to bomb an embassy!

  Kidnapping 2 israeli soldiers: Well Nasrallah said that he knew that isreal will declare a war, and yet he did it. 1000 died. Tens of thousands injured. 15000 homes were destroyed. Tens of thousands left the country. 10 to 15 Billion Dollar Losses. For what? This is an act of a Devil not terrorism.

  Kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon during the war: very Terrorish, Unless they were “spies”.

  As for the Marine Bombing, I can’t see anything wrong with that.

  Well you have to add these to the List:
  Burning tires and cutting roads!
  Burning Cars in Tareeq Al jadeedeh!
  Occupation of Centre Ville (You need their approval to Enter the “Mukhayam”)
  Occupation of Oza3i
  Occupation of AL Ramil AL 3ali
  Occupation of Wadil Al Jameel
  You see all of these Territories are occupied, not rented or bought.
  Ocuupation actually of All Da7yeh.
  Occupation of the South until recently.

  In addition they are responsible for all the assassinations from Marwan Himadeh, to 3ein 3ala2, either by direct involvement (like in hamade’s case), indirect involvement (providing intelligence and support) or by covering and protecting the killers (we can see how they trying to stop the tribunal).

  Well, everything should be clear by now.

• 36. S.M.S. | April 16th, 2007 at 2:32 pm

  I see tomorrow has come and gone and no answer to George’s questions from DJUAN’s or whatever.

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